Wednesday, December 16, 2009

common message

Matt Dabbs posted a great reminder today, i.e., there is unity in Scripture. The Old and the New Testament are not separated books about a God with two different histories with man. The Old being about law keeping and little to do with love and grace as opposed to the New being all about love and grace. There is not a scary old judge in the sky God in the OT with a kind, gentle Jesus in the NT.

Instead, as Dabbs points out, the unity in both Testaments is "God created us, loves us, liberates us ... and seeks to bring restoration to the world and that we respond in a way that is fitting with those godly priorities and objectives." He reminds of Jesus' challenge in John 14.15, 21; i.e., love and obedience go hand-in-hand.

Kim Riddlebarger helped me see this truth with greater clarity than I had before back in October 2008. I think I've sensed this for some time but he helped me get my mind more clearly wrapped around it. This is an important concept. I know far too many Christians who miss a fuller understanding of God because of their view of Scripture as separate books. One postmodern even recently summarized the OT as (1) humanity realizes something untrue and dies and (2) humanity invents religion and the law to solve the problem. This guy flat missed the big picture. Too bad.

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